Actor wants Hollywood to see him as more than ‘that deaf guy’

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Russell Harvard plays the lead role in "Tribes," a play about a romance between two hearing-impaired people, which opens March 10 at the Mark Taper Forum. Harvard has been busy since “There Will Be Blood” put him on the map in 2007. He starred in an independent film, “The Hammer,” based on the life of a deaf college wrestler. He has also guest-starred on “CSI: NY,” worked with L.A.’s respected Deaf West Theater, and completed two films with a production company that concentrates on films in American Sign Language.

Russell Harvard, the deaf actor who appears in "Tribes," poses at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles. He stars in the acclaimed Barrow Street Theatre production of “Tribes” beginning March 10 at the Mark Taper Forum

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Russell Harvard, a deaf actor, makes the "Tribes" hand sign, which he and sign language interpreter Candace Broecker Penn came up with together during "Tribe" rehearsals in New York. Harvard plays the lead role in this play about a romance between two hearing-impaired people.

Russell Harvard, the deaf actor who plays the lead role in "Tribes," poses at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles. Born in Pasadena, Texas, Harvard was raised in a clan with deaf family members going back three generations. Both of his parents and his paternal grandmother are also deaf.

Russell Harvard, the deaf actor who plays the lead role in "Tribes," left, poses with his friend and understudy Thomas DellaMonica at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Russell Harvard, the deaf actor who plays the lead role in "Tribes," poses at the Music Center in downtown Los Angeles. Harvard had a career breakthrough when he appeared opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (2007).

Russell Harvard remembers the moment he decided to become an actor. It happened when he was a kid growing up in Austin, Texas.

“My cousin was in this play. It was something new they’d created that was based on ‘The Wizard of Oz,'” said Harvard, 31. “I didn’t know what to expect.”

Harvard was amazed. “He was this really evil character. It took me completely by surprise,” Harvard recalled. “My cousin was so nice and mild-mannered and here he was playing this villain. I thought, ‘Wow, I want to do that!'”

Harvard has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. He stars in the acclaimed Barrow Street Theatre production of “Tribes” beginning March 10 at the Mark Taper Forum, and his film and TV credits include going toe to toe with the formidable Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” (he played the adult son of Day-Lewis’ hard-driving oil man, Daniel Plainview).

Harvard’s success has surprised others, too, including those who advised him to train as a teacher in case the acting thing didn’t work out.

They had good reason for concern. Harvard has been nearly deaf since birth.

Born in Pasadena, Texas, Harvard was raised in a clan with deaf family members going back three generations. Both of his parents and his paternal grandmother are also deaf.

In the mid-1980s, the family moved to Austin so that Russell and his brother Renny could be educated at the Texas School for the Deaf. Those were difficult years for Russell when he struggled with one of the main points of contention in the play: communicating with sign language vs. reading lips and speaking.

“It’s definitely something that people have different opinions about, though maybe they’re not as (passionate) as the family in ‘Tribes,'” said Harvard, who is fluent communicating in sign language but is also an excellent lip reader. (Our interview was conducted without an interpreter, and Harvard only occasionally asked me to repeat a question.)

In “Tribes,” Harvard plays Billy, a young deaf man living at home with his contentious family. Though Harvard never saw the original 2010 production of British author Nina Raine’s play at London’s Royal Court Theatre, he discovered it when Barrow Street Theatre announced the American premiere would take place in 2012 at its Off-Broadway venue. “I decided (the role of Billy) had to be played by me,” he said. “That was it; it was going to be my role.”

Unlike Harvard, Billy is born into a challenging family that often makes life difficult for him. He has been discouraged from learning American Sign Language by his father.

When Billy brings home a girlfriend, Sylvia, who is losing her hearing, his two siblings and parents have various negative reactions toward her. Sylvia is teaching Billy sign language. That doesn’t sit well with his father, who suggests that communicating without speaking creates a barrier between the deaf and the rest of the world, in effect ghettoizing them.

But there are deeper reasons for the antagonism, Harvard said.

“Billy’s father is afraid of losing him – he’s worried that (sign language) will put up a wall between them,” Harvard said. He added that Billy’s brother has similar concerns. “They have a close bond and he doesn’t want his relationship with Billy to change.”

The conflict plays out in long, emotional sessions at the family dining room table. Learning how to negotiate that maze “was the most difficult part of the play for me,” Harvard said. “There are a lot of people talking over each other and arguing. (Director) David (Cromer) and I worked really hard on getting the timing right.”

Harvard has been busy since “There Will Be Blood” put him on the map in 2007. He starred in an independent film, “The Hammer,” based on the life of a deaf college wrestler. He has also guest-starred on “CSI: NY,” worked with L.A.’s respected Deaf West Theater, and completed two films with a production company that concentrates on films in American Sign Language.

But Harvard says he doesn’t want to be thought of as “that deaf guy” by the theater, TV and film industries. He parted ways with a casting agent who was pushing him to try out only for parts that required a deaf actor. Encouraged by a new, more ambitious agent and heeding the advice of his friend, deaf actress Shoshannah Stern (“Threat Matrix,” “Weeds,” “Lie to Me”), Harvard plans to audition for all kinds of roles in the hope that Hollywood will use him for his abilities as an actor first and accommodate his condition, rather than cast him because of it.

“I am determined to break out,” Harvard said. “That’s why I’m excited to be performing here in Los Angeles. I want people to see me and think, ‘Hey, we could cast that guy.'”

Paul D. Hodgins is a freelancer who previously worked at the Orange County Register since 1993. He spent more than two decades as the Register’s theater critic, and for eight years he wrote about dance as well. Hodgins has also written for American Theatre, Variety, The Sondheim Review and Backstage West. Hodgins has also been active as an educator and scholar. He was the music director of the dance department at The University of California, Irvine from 1985-92 and served in similar positions at Eastern Michigan University, Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University and the Banff Centre for the Arts. His book about relationships between music and choreography, 'Music, Movement and Metaphor,' was published in 1992. Since 2001, Hodgins has taught arts and entertainment journalism at California State University, Fullerton. Hodgins holds a doctorate in musical composition and theory from the University of Southern California. He lives in Huntington Beach.